Innuos Zenith MKIII as Roon Core

The Innuos, is a very good " all in one " solution. If you are having problems because of features like " DSP / Library size / Number of streams" you could experiment with a separate Core.

Try your Innuos as Roon Core with Squeezelite (experimental). I bet you it will sound as good as with UPnP

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This is what i expected … but

You will have to activate SqueezeLite support on Roon settings. One box to check there. I am not home to check now, and I don’t remember which part of the settings

Hi thyname
Thank you so much. I solved the problem.

Found it under the Innuos Support Release 1.4.1
Disclaimer - this is an experimental feature which may have occasional dropouts. It uses the Squeezebox integration within Roon which supports only audio up to 24bit/192 and DSD64. Quarantine and Import will be disabled as they require the internal LMS to be active and that would conflict with this feature on Roon.
Go to Settings > Choose Server Integration
Activate the Roon switch then select the option “Use Roon Core with Squeezelite Player (Experimental)”
Click the Apply Changes button
Launch the Roon App
Go to Settings > Setup
Activate the switch for “Enable Squeezebox Support”
Go to Setting > Audio
Disable any players shown under “Connected to Core”
Enable the Squeezelite player under Squeezebox.

And WHOWWWWWWWWW my god !! Thats it. Absolutly fantastic - a big, big deal - the music is back.

Thanks
Chris

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Awesome! Glad you figure it out.

I am also happy you like the sound now. There is a big discussion on the thread below. It’s a pity people don’t believe us about Roon, Innuos, and RAM memory playback.

As is so often the case in life, despite all the discussions one has to make certain experiences oneself.
I never expected that. Of Course I didn’t have that in mind when I bought the Innuos.
Player and music data in one place, that’s simply ingenious and sounds stunning. Even if it’s still experimental, its fantastic.

You are 100% right!

What would only happen if this mode were coupled with even more processor power ?!

Yes the squeezelite on innuos core is amazing. And shows that the roon recommendation to have the core and endpoint separate isn’t necessarily the best solution.

As to your question about exploring this method further, there’s a whole other thread where it got very heated. Those asking Roon to explore these type of options and then those stating ad nauseam that there is no evidence to even warrant trying. That’s pretty much where it ended so hopefully one day Roon takes SQ up a level by exploring these options more.

The first group of people own an Innuos device. The latter group of people don’t. They just request evidence / proof.

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Hi Christian, I’m also experimenting with this new feature of Innuos. Can you describe what your setup was before you enabled the Squeezebox feature? What endpoint have you been using? Was it the Innuos with standard Roon Player (RAAT) or did you replace an external endpoint like an SOtM sMS200? And: what cables have/are you been using in these setups?
Also it would be interesting what the rest of your setup looks like :wink:
Thanks for sharing! I’ll also report back my findings.

Hi Phillip
We know us from the PS Audio Forum. I am the one with the ATC SCM 25, Rockna Wavedream Signature Balanced, PS Powerplant 5 and since one Month now a Innuos ZEN MK3 with a 8TB harddisk
My Innuos sounded great in the Standard upnp mode, while it didn’t reach the same class in pure roon core mode. I found that very unfortunate, because Roon is simply perfect with my 120,000-piece music files. So I decided to buy a roon licensed.
The reason for this deterioration People Way was the lack of processor power of the Innuos. I was already thinking about buying a NUC when I tried the 3rd Roon mode in the Innuos. Roon Core with Sequeezeplayer. That blew me away and turned my little Innuos, NUC, Roon Hifi world upside down from one second to the other.
All these partly emotional discussions here in the forum I didn’t know, I don’t care.
The Innuos is now Roon Core and Endpoint together. The data then goes from the Innuos USB via an Audioquest Diamond cable to my DAC and from there directly via a Van den Hul
3T TheMountain to the Speakers. Apart from a powerplant There is nothing else in this chain.

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Just got a Mail from Innuos after I ask what are the reason for this Sound difference is.

If using the experimental mode, you are using our internal player which buffers all tracks in RAM for playback, providing less latency and less power noise as the HDD/SSD is not working.

This feature is based on Squeezebox support on Roon. Unfortunately Roon can discontinue this at any time, we have no control over this. Roon is a closed software system so we can’t simply build a player for Roon. On version 1.4.3 we will further upgrade the sound quality of our player but unfortunately this will not be heard with Roon. If Roon does open up it’s protocol to allow 3rd parties to build software players for it then there’s a chance we can do this natively but for the moment our hands are.

This means for me that I will definitely not buy a livetime license after the Roon Trial expires. I will be watching Roon’s progress very closely.

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I have no stake in this (not yet at least) but sounds like it might be of interest to, e.g. @danny.

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I’m interested in what the user experience with Roon is like with RAM playback enabled. Is it as fluid as normal, how quick is it for changing playlists and tracks, is there a longer delay before playback, any other disadvantages in operation compared to RAAT.

Hi crystalgipsy

First of all, … I made a detailed comparison between the good upnp mode and the Roon Core with Sequeezeplayers.
Squeezeplayer plays much more relaxed, calm, deep, lively and emotional. I’ve never had a digital source that sounded so good.

I have not had any longer dropouts in my chain so far. Here and there, with fast title changes only on Tidal, there was a short delay. With music from the Harddisc in the Zen I never had that. But that can be completely different with someone else in another network.

I can say without reservation that the unbelievable sound gain more than makes up for this minimal limitation. Not to mention the great Ronn interface.
It’s not like I switch on the memory mode. I only use the core mode with Sequeezeplayer from the Zen. In the end I don’t care why it sounds better, although I’m also dependent on Roon’s grace.

Therefore I ask myself again and again, what would be possible with the opening Roon for other players in terms of sound …

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I can’t see this will happen as its believed it won’t help other Roon devices. Innuos is a server and player and a
closed box system, most Roon endpoints are just a player and rely on a seperate core, so the belief is RAM playback is not that beneficial and the device itself would need to support it, not the server so this is highly unlikely to happen in all endpoints. They all offer some small buffering anyway but not to the level of Innuos.

Roon also don’t want to effect anything to do with the smooth interaction of their product and they believe RAM playback would. The CTO has made it clear that for Roon in general RAM playback is not advantageous. It might help the Innuos but not all products, and having split development for a small set of users I imagine is not desired. The other thing is they don’t officially support Squeezelite either only Squeezebox hardware as they are fixed and are not prone to development changes any more I guess.

If Innuos player works then their is no need for Roon to do anything and you have the best of both worlds. If it’s is a little flakey then that I guess is the trade off RAM playback with Roon as it was never designed for it.

They might change their mind but I would not hold my breath.

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I understand very well that Roon needs to see the big picture.
I just wish they wouldn’t just sacrifice this support on the altar of profit. I just enjoy it as long as I can.
It doesn’t have to be Sequeezeplayer, it could be any other player that allows 3rd developers to work here and improve things.

Particularly when other developers were working on it, the described problems could probably be solved

Maybe a too pious wish …

Roon has meanwhile too dominant a market position and a little competition would not harm here.

Hi Phillipp
Have you had any experience in the meantime? I would be very interested in them?